DBTB Episode 106: Bess Dougherty of Ratio Beerworks

Bess Dougherty has one of the best social media accounts in the beer space these days, mostly because it doesn’t largely focus on beer. With her Carhartt overalls, she’s been using the front pocket to hold snacks. From cookies and chips, to ice cream bars and tater tots, the snack pocket is a quirky escape from reality that celebrates between meal noshes.

Bess has been brewing for a decade now, starting off at Wynkoop, the venerable Denver Brewery, before moving on to a head brewer position at the Greatful Gnome, and then landing amid the pandemic at Ratio Beerworks.

There, she’s part of a brewing team that regularly rotates jobs, it’s not just days in the brewdeck or in the cellar, and she spoke to the show last week she had just finished keg washing and was sitting on the brewery’s patio with a Mexican lager.

Earlier this year the brewery took gold for the Golden/Blonde ale category at the Great American Beer Festival, a style that isn’t often thought of these days but remains important to craft beer history and education.

Coming off the high of a big win, Bess says she quickly had to fight back against the pervasive misogyny that exists in parts of the beer industry. She’s been vocal and active in the fight to bring equality and better understanding to fellow professionals and consumers alike.

This episode is sponsored by:

NZ Hops, the co-operative of Master Hop Growers are a passionate collective of farms dedicated to innovation and sustainability. Leading the charge in sustainable farm practices, some NZ Hops farms have over five generations of knowledge that inform their composting program, used by growers to promote healthy regenerative growth of hops year upon year. This creates high quality soil, a critical component of healthy growing conditions. At NZ Hops, they feel that sustainability is not only being a steward for the land, but for our future. We’re in it together.

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About Drink Beer, Think Beer With John Holl

Drink Beer, Think Beer is a weekly podcast gets to the bottom of every pint with brewers, growers, and industry leaders on all aspects of the brewing industry. From ingredients and process, to philosophy and the art in each beer, the podcast is hosted by long-time journalist John Holl and is available on all the major podcast platforms.

Beer Edge releases new episodes of Drink Beer, Think Beer with John Holl every Wednesday.

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